Air quality management systems in urban regions: The case of the emission trading programme reclaim in Los Angeles and its transferability to Vienna

Clean air constitutes an essential element of the quality of living in urban regions. The discussion of how to manage air-quality in an era of shrinking public budgets and the trend towards deregulation has led to a rethinking of the present system in the urban region of Vienna. This paper is an attempt to contribute to these considerations by a comparative study of the "command&control" type of system operative in Austria (as regulated in the Austrian "Clean Air Act") and the new tradeable emission permit approach introduced in the urban region of Los Angeles (L.A.), California (the so called RECLAIM program) to reduce SOx and NOx emissions from stationary sources. The study utilized a survey of companies included in the respective pollution control programs in L.A. and Vienna, experts as well as administrators active in air quality management as a data base for the analysis. The survey is based on a mix of written responses to a questionnaire as well as personal interviews (conducted in 1996 and 97). Three main issues constituted the core of the analysis investigating the pros and cons of the approaches in practice: ? How much flexibility and discretionary latitude do the different policy systems grant the decision makers in the companies in the program to adopt the most efficient response to the request to reduce emissions? ? Which cost implications do the different systems have for the companies and the public management bodies? ? Which stimuli are provided in the long-run to innovate and promote emission reducing technical progress? Additionally the question was adressed which institutional changes were considered to have been the most troublesome in phasing out the old "command&control" type of system in L.A. and introducing the new RECLAIM program in 1994. Some basic propositions are developed how to introduce a tradeable permit system in the Vienna urban region. The results of the study do partly confirm some of the theses found in the theoretical literature, but offer additional insights on the institutional as well as political problems of intoducing a tradable emissions` permit scheme.

Air quality management systems in urban regions: The case of the emission trading programme reclaim in Los Angeles and its transferability to Vienna

Clean air constitutes an essential element of the quality of living in urban regions. The discussion of how to manage air-quality in an era of shrinking public budgets and the trend towards deregulation has led to a rethinking of the present system in the urban region of Vienna. This paper is an attempt to contribute to these considerations by a comparative study of the "command&control" type of system operative in Austria (as regulated in the Austrian "Clean Air Act") and the new tradeable emission permit approach introduced in the urban region of Los Angeles (L.A.), California (the so called RECLAIM program) to reduce SOx and NOx emissions from stationary sources. The study utilized a survey of companies included in the respective pollution control programs in L.A. and Vienna, experts as well as administrators active in air quality management as a data base for the analysis. The survey is based on a mix of written responses to a questionnaire as well as personal interviews (conducted in 1996 and 97). Three main issues constituted the core of the analysis investigating the pros and cons of the approaches in practice: ? How much flexibility and discretionary latitude do the different policy systems grant the decision makers in the companies in the program to adopt the most efficient response to the request to reduce emissions? ? Which cost implications do the different systems have for the companies and the public management bodies? ? Which stimuli are provided in the long-run to innovate and promote emission reducing technical progress? Additionally the question was adressed which institutional changes were considered to have been the most troublesome in phasing out the old "command&control" type of system in L.A. and introducing the new RECLAIM program in 1994. Some basic propositions are developed how to introduce a tradeable permit system in the Vienna urban region. The results of the study do partly confirm some of the theses found in the theoretical literature, but offer additional insights on the institutional as well as political problems of intoducing a tradable emissions` permit scheme

Effect of the Mullins softening on mode I fracture of carbon-black filled rubbers

The effect of the Mullins softening on mode I fracture of carbon-black filled rubbers was investigated experimentally. Large specimen of NR and SBR filled with the same amount and nature of carbon-black were submitted to uniaxial tension. Then, single edge notch tension samples were cut along various directions with respect to the direction of preconditioning, and submitted to tension until break. The fracture energy was estimated and compared according to the intensity of Mullins softening already undergone in the direction of crack opening and according to the softening undergone in other directions. The NR shows significantly improved resistance to crack propagation compared to the SBR due to its crystallization ability. For both materials, it was observed that a moderate prestrain has a positive impact increasing the material fracture toughness and that material softening and anisotropy induced by Mullins effect does not show on resistance to mode I crack propagation

The importance of layout and configuration data for flexibility during commissionning and operation of the LHC machine protection systems

Due to the large stored energies in both magnets and particle beams, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires a large inventory of machine protection systems, as e.g. powering interlock systems, based on a series of distributed industrial controllers for the protection of the more than 10'000 normal and superconducting magnets. Such systems are required to be at the same time fast, reliable and secure but also flexible and configurable to allow for automated commissioning, remote monitoring and optimization during later operation. Based on the generic hardware architecture of the LHC machine protection systems presented at EPAC 2002 [2] and ICALEPS 2003, the use of configuration data for protection systems in view of the required reliability and safety is discussed. To achieve the very high level of reliability, it is required to use a coherent description of the layout of the accelerator components and of the associated machine protection architecture and their logical interconnections. Mechanisms to guarantee coherency of data and repositories and secure configuration of safety critical systems are presented. This paper focuses on the first system being commissioned, the complex magnet powering system, to become fully operational before first injection of beam into the LHC

Prevalence of vitamin B12 depletion and deficiency in Liechtenstein

Abstract Objective Data about vitamin B12 (B12) deficiency in the general population are scarce. The present study was performed to determine the prevalence of B12 deficiency in the general population of the Principality of Liechtenstein, as well as to identify sub-populations potentially at high risk. Design Retrospective study. Setting Ambulatory setting, population of the Principality of Liechtenstein. Subjects Seven thousand four hundred and twenty-four patients seeking medical attention whose serum samples were referred for routine work-up in an ambulatory setting were consecutively enrolled. Serum total B12 was determined in all patients in this cohort. In addition, for a subgroup of 1328 patients, serum holotranscobalamin was also measured. Prevalence of B12 deficiency was calculated. Further, multivariate logistical regression models were applied to identify covariates independently associated with B12 deficiency and depletion. Results Nearly 8 % of the general population was suffering from either B12 depletion or deficiency. The ratio between B12 depletion and deficiency was 2:1 for all age ranges. Pathological changes were detected predominantly in older people. Female gender was a significant predictor of B12 depletion. In the cohort, nearly 40 % exhibited either depletion or deficiency of B12. Conclusions B12 depletion and deficiency are common in Liechtenstein, a Central European country. The measurement of biochemical markers represents a cost-efficient and valid assessment of the B12 state. When a deficiency of B12 is diagnosed at an early stage, many cases can be treated or prevented, with beneficial effects on individual outcomes and subsequent potential reductions in health-care cost

Improvement of Neuroenergetics by Hypertonic Lactate Therapy in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury Is Dependent on Baseline Cerebral Lactate/Pyruvate Ratio.

Energy dysfunction is associated with worse prognosis after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Recent data suggest that hypertonic sodium lactate infusion (HL) improves energy metabolism after TBI. Here, we specifically examined whether the efficacy of HL (3h infusion, 30-40 μmol/kg/min) in improving brain energetics (using cerebral microdialysis [CMD] glucose as a main therapeutic end-point) was dependent on baseline cerebral metabolic state (assessed by CMD lactate/pyruvate ratio [LPR]) and cerebral blood flow (CBF, measured with perfusion computed tomography [PCT]). Using a prospective cohort of 24 severe TBI patients, we found CMD glucose increase during HL was significant only in the subgroup of patients with elevated CMD LPR >25 (n = 13; +0.13 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08-0.19] mmol/L, p < 0.001; vs. +0.04 [-0.05-0.13] in those with normal LPR, p = 0.33, mixed-effects model). In contrast, CMD glucose increase was independent from baseline CBF (coefficient +0.13 [0.04-0.21] mmol/L when global CBF was <32.5 mL/100 g/min vs. +0.09 [0.04-0.14] mmol/L at normal CBF, both p < 0.005) and systemic glucose. Our data suggest that improvement of brain energetics upon HL seems predominantly dependent on baseline cerebral metabolic state and support the concept that CMD LPR - rather than CBF - could be used as a diagnostic indication for systemic lactate supplementation following TBI

A Fast Magnet Current Change Monitor for Machine Protection in HERA and the LHC

ABSTRACT Fast Magnet Current Change Monitors (FMCM) have been designed to provide a reliable trigger signal for dumping the beam(s) in case of powering failures of magnets with fast effects on the particles. Rather than relying on current measurements that can be imprecise and affected by noise, the voltage drop over the circuit is measured and the magnetic field in the magnets is derived in real time, based on an impedance model of the electrical circuit. Developed at DESY for the HERA storage ring to protect the superconducting magnets in case of sudden power supply failures, the system has been recently validated for its use in critical circuits of the LHC and its transfer lines. The benefits of the system and the experience at DESY and CERN are discussed and presented along with results of the tests performed. The system will be integrated into the CERN accelerator controls structure and provide additional protection for operation with high intensity beams in the LHC and its injector from 2006 onwards. HISTORY AND MOTIVATION AT DESY AND CERN For DESY, it turned out that, in case of failures of power converters for some critical quadrupole magnets, the beam was not dumped in time to avoid a possible damage of detector components. The beam loss monitors were too slow, and the internal power converter monitoring did not cover all failure cases, especially not the failures in the current control loop. Driven by beam incidents in 2003, the internal alarm reaction time of the power converters was improved and FMCMs were developed and installed for 14 critical magnet circuits in 2004. For CERN, during several session of the Chamonix XIV conference [1] and the Machine Protection Review [2] "Fast Current Change Monitors" were proposed for additional protection, based on the system already operational at DESY. A beam incident in the TT40 extraction line of the SPS (destroying several vacuum chambers and a quadrupole magnet) showed the necessity of an additional protective device POWER CONVERTER FAILURE SCENARIOS After a power converter failure feeding a quadrupole magnet in a circular machine with current, the following happens: up to a certain magnet current deviation, the beam orbit will only slightly deviate, depending on the distance of the beam orbit from the quadrupole centre. After reaching a certain limit, the beam will suddenly blow up within only a few turns. With very fast beam loss monitors such failures can be captured for most cases, but in any case only after the beginning of the beam loss. For a dipole magnet in a circular machine, the beam will change its orbit proportional to the current deviation and after some time hit the vacuum chamber. Again, fast beam loss monitors could capture such failures only once beam losses occur. For a dipole magnet in a transfer line, there is no circulating beam which could trigger a beam loss monitor. For a wrong magnet current, the full beam will be lost in the chamber without warning. Magnet current or field monitoring before and during an extraction is the only way to prevent damage. OPERATING MODES The FMCM can be used for two operating modes: circulating beam mode (for HERA and LHC) and pulsed beam mode (for transfer lines used for extraction from the SPS towards LHC and CNGS). Circulating beam mode is used to protect a machine with circulating beam. Magnets are in general ramped very slowly (typically within several minutes). A triggering of the FMCM will dump the beam(s). False triggers are very annoying because machine operation will be interrupted for several hours in case of the LHC. The frequency of false triggers must not be higher than once per severa

The LHC Post Mortem Analysis Framework

The LHC with its unprecedented complexity and criticality of beam operation will need thorough analysis of data taken from systems such as power converters, interlocks and beam instrumentation during events like magnet quenches and beam loss. The causes of beam aborts or in the worst case equipment damage have to be revealed to improve operational procedures and protection systems. The correct functioning of the protection systems with their required redundancy has to be verified after each such event. Post mortem analysis software for the control room has been prepared with automated analysis packages in view of the large number of systems and data volume. This paper recalls the requirements for the LHC Beam Post Mortem System (PM) and the necessity for highly reliable data collection. It describes in detail the redundant architecture for data collection as well as the chosen implementation of a multi-level analysis framework, allowing for automated analysis and qualification of a beam dump event based on expert provided analysis modules. It concludes with an example of the data taken during first beam tests in September 2008 with a first version of the system